The Civic Center Residents Coalition was formed shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 to address street shutdowns including Park Row, rerouting of MTA bus routes and rampant government permit placard abuse. C.C.R.C. is comprised of residential complexes Chatham Green, Chatham Towers, Southbridge Towers and Chinatown area local businesses and residents.
janccrc@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

D.C. reigns in its Government drivers - but will Bloomberg follow suit?

CCRC has proposed a logical solution to the City's problem of parking placard abuse by its employees who often drive with impunity , park with impunity, and in some cases harass and intimidate with impunity. The NYPD and FEDS are offenders as well as a recent report revealed. D.C. and NYC are suffering the same revenue losses since FEDS in both cities routinely toss their tickets rather than pay them. D.C. has taken a bold step in the right direction. Similar to the CCRC plan to use 21st century technology, in place of the current 19th century method of parking placard perks, they are using tracking technology similar to method used by ZIPCAR rentals. Although the details of the method are not revealed in the article, the very idea of monitoring the driver's whereabouts and time spent traveling in a government owned or sanctioned vehicle is a very good start in eliminating abuse.Another great idea to come out of D.C. is having parking ticket fines automatically deducted from government worker's salaries.

Now if Mayor Bloomberg would only follow suit.

Here is the quote from the Oct 24 08 Washington Post Story:

"It's an unofficial policy," Howland said. "What I would try to do, and am doing, is make agencies pay their tickets."

In the past, he said, it was difficult to determine who was driving a D.C. government vehicle, but yesterday the city unveiled a new car-sharing strategy for its fleet that will use technology borrowed from Zipcar to monitor drivers. Also, Howland has developed a legislative proposal that would allow the city to take fines out of workers' wages. It would require council approval.